Taken
by Memories Of The Bittersweet
Summary: Ororo finally gets the manor to herself, but you can't relax if you're an X-Man. The premise is in the title. First fic.


Both of the coaches where brimming with bags and students, there were only three responsible adults on each coach, but that was enough to control them. Almost everyone had boarded, there were only two people not in the coaches now. Both were women and standing on opposite sides of the mansion door.

"You sure you're OK staying Ororo? We'd only be gone for two days, the manor will be fine." Said the redhead.

"It is alright Jean, go and have fun. Anyway, I feel as if I need some time to myself and the Goddess, to calm down." Responded the slightly older woman.

"You already look calm, but you and Logan are great together, you'll be fine. OK then, we'll see you tomorrow night, around nine, yeah?"

The woman inside the house bowed her head almost imperceptibly and lifted it with a smile, and with that they said their goodbyes. The younger woman went inside the nearest coach and a minute later both vehicles were rolling down the driveway.

It was eight thirty when Ororo closed the front door. Her friends and students would not be back for almost two days, so for the first day Ororo decided to clean house.

She started on her nephew's room, Evan was extremely disorganised. His clothes were everywhere, his extra skateboard was on his bed along with muddy boots. And for that matter Erik's bed sheets were despicable. It would take her the best part of two hours to tidy his room. When she had finally finished her nephew's room she started on the others, taking a break just after one to eat and tend to the garden.

Ororo's cleaning concluded minutes before midnight with Professor Xavier's room. She made sure that she didn't go into any draws or cupboards, just the things she could see. She ultimately got to sleep half twelve and was so exhausted she woke up eleven hours later.

While her best friend way trying her best to restore order to the manor, Jean was trying to control over a hundred and fifty students. Obviously she wasn't doing it by herself, she had five other adults and ten of the oldest students helping, but they were still a handful.

The coaches arrived at the campsite at quarter to twelve. The area they were assigned to could have housed four or five school, but the academy wanted privacy and a lot of space, plus the owner was getting paid ten percent more than five schools would.

All the equipment was unpacked or set up by one thirty. Everyone had lunch and a rest for two hours then the test began. Though they could practice all of there skills in the simulator, nothing could prepare them for the real thing, and even if they could practice on the grounds, they needed a different environment. Of course the students did exercises with their powers and without. They all did two exercises, then had dinner and did two more during dusk and when it was almost pitch black.

Every got to bed only and hour and a half before Ororo, but they would defiantly need the extra sleep and they would be waking up earlier than her.

Ororo woke up at quarter to twelve on a beautiful Wednesday winter morning. The sun was partly covered by clouds but the weather witch flew into the air and cleared the sky. Not bothering to have breakfast or change, just slipping into a silk dressing gown, she breathed with the Goddess and bathed in her sunlight.

She got back to the house half way through the day to have lunch. Ororo was just about to start eating her pasta when she heard the house phone ring.

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon Ororo."

"Good afternoon, Charles." Ororo said joyfully "How is your trip going?"

"It has been interesting, to say the least, but I think it's time for me to return to the manor."

"Did you not discover all you wanted to?"

"I found out everything I could, but I don't think there's anything else they know."

"So when were you thinking of returning?"

"Today, this evening, probably."

"I will be out and most likely will not be back until seven o'clock. Plus, everybody else is away on a camping trip, they will be returning at nine.

"Well maybe I'll come back when they do, just in case you're late."

"Alright, Charles, I shall see you at nine."

"Goodbye Ororo."

"Goodbye."

The line went dead and Ororo put down the receiver. She swooned back to the table and ate her lunch, when she was done she took to the skies again. Ororo flew around the manor then the grounds, checking that everything was right. She flew back to the house as dusk set in.

She got back to the house minutes after seven, and had a shower. She came down dressed in white bell foot trousers and a black silk blouse. Her snowy hair was almost soaking and she preferred to let it dry naturally so put her towel on as a shawl until it was completely dry.

Ororo looked at her watch, it was half past eight, she smiled at the thought of all the children running up the stairs and back into their bedrooms and wasting all the effort she put in. Though everyone would be fed she decided to make food for ten more people, just in case. She walked down the stairs and headed for the kitchen when there was a knock at the door. Ororo looked puzzled then glanced at her watch again, twenty-eight minutes to nine, on the dot. She walked to the door, there came another knock. The woman cracked the door open and poked her head through.

"Hello," she said suspiciously "can I help you?"

"I'm hurt" a tall, bald man said in a drowsy tone, clutching his arm.

"What is wrong?"

"I think my arm is broken." He winced. She looked at the man wondering if she should let her in, but gave in when he said. "Please, it hurts so much!"

The man struggled into the house holding onto the door going in. Ororo backed up as he came in but his hand fell onto her shoulder and he squeezed it harder than he should have. She was just about to protest when suddenly she felt her stomach become extremely painful, she crumpled to the floor, coughing as she held her stomach.

_How did he do that, his ar-_

She didn't finish the sentence because she was hit on the jaw. She fell to the floor and shrivelled into the foetal position. Ororo closed her eyes and heard shouting.

"You can come in guys, the bitch is down." She opened her eyes to see four men running in with dark grey F.O.H T-shirts. "He said it 'ould be somewhere in a room with a massive screen and somethin' like ah keyboard."

After the others had left, the man, who was obviously the leader, grabbed Ororo's collar, pulled her up and smashed her against the wall. He didn't recite a monologue; he just started hitting her again and again. During the assault, Ororo tried to concentrate on using her powers, but it was futile. She new if she got to angry she wouldn't be able to control the power and would destroy the house as well as the assailants. Two ineffective options down, she used the last: fight. Ororo was a good fighter but the wounds had already taken their toll, she was almost too weak to battle, but she did. Unfortunately the man was strong and didn't take to kindly to Ororo striking back; the attack worsened, she only got relief when the others came back.

They all were a little horrified when they saw he had broken her nose, split her lip and the cuts on her face. She obviously had abdominal trauma because she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"What!? She's a damn mutant, she deserves it!"

"Yeah, but…John that's jus'…" stuttered a young man, only about seventeen.

"Argh, tell me what you found."

"Erm, there erm wasn't that thing, I mean, that pouch we were s'pose to get isn't there."

"What? _Argh_." He spun around and pounded Ororo in the stomach with his heavy, steel tipped boot; she groaned and spluttered blood onto trousers. They were all surprised, but John began to smirk.

"Damn, look what you did to my trousers you stupid." He was about to slap her when the boy shouted for him to stop. He did so and stared the boy, irritated. Nobody had noticed but her eyes had fogged over and a storm was brewing outside, she knew if she could just hold up here for fifteen more minutes then she would have a chance. After a minute he said. "Did you go to plan 'B' then?"

"Yeah" answered the young man.

"Well then we might be spending a bit more time together." He smiled at his victim. John turned back to his subordinates and said. "OK boys, get her and let's go."

"Hey can we go and get some stuff from the rooms upstairs first?" said another man, only a few years older than the boy.

"Quick, real quick." Said John.

The four others raced upstairs, while the bald man turned around to the woman struggling to sit up. He crouched down, pulled her into the sitting position then pushed her against the wall. She groaned as her head hit it.

"Better?" he smiled smugly, then he noticed her eyes. "Hey, what's that? What you doing?" she knew she had to act now. There was a rumble from outside, then thunder and lightning. The others ran down the stairs with a couple of things in their hands.

"That storm came outta nowhere." Suddenly hail started crashing on the perimeter of the house. "Whoa!"

"Yeah it did, I think the little bitch di-" he stopped when a bolt of lightning shot through the roof and hit a wall.

"We gotta get outta here, John" Shouted the boy.

"Sam, shut-" before he could finish he was hit by lightning and was thrown back over twenty metres to the opposite wall, he immediately slumped to the floor. The small area where the lightning had hit was oak brown. They stared at him, completely flabbergasted.

After the longest minute of their short lives, Sam spun on his heels, got Ororo by the scruff of her neck and dragged her up; her feet dangling half a foot off the floor.

"What you do that for?" he said angrily, she heard a hind of sadness, then he started shaking her. "He was my brother!" he continued to hold her but dipped his head and cried. Suddenly he raised his fist and hit struck her on her temple. Her eyes rolled back and it was her time to slump. Though she was now unconscious, the storm continued and even got worst.

"We gotta go c'mon!"

"Wait I gotta get my brother." Sam shouted over the rain and thunder. But he couldn't get to him because the lightning kept crashing into the house.

"C'mon!"

"No, we gotta wait, 'til it stops."

"_Now_!" the other man pulled Sam out of the house and into the van while the other two dragged the unconscious woman out and into the back. The van was moving before the doors were shut. And with the doors closed the navy van drove off at full speed, down the driveway and onto the streets. The van that carried an unconscious and badly beaten Ororo Munroe had gone, disappeared, vanished without a trace.

"Now that your training exercises are over, it's time for some healthy competition." Scott said to the students who were all sitting on the ground. "You're gunna play some no power, don't groan like that it'll be fun, baseball. That's a bit better."

There were six teams, with an adult at as the captain of each. The games were long but fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. The last match was highly anticipated; Logan's team against Remy's team, but everyone called it either The Wolves vs. The Cajuns or The Wolves vs. The Gumbos, they were only called that by The Wolves. The match lasted for ten minutes more then the other matches, but it was defiantly worth it. The Cajuns had a massive lead and in the last twenty minutes The Wolves were somehow levelling out the score.

Bobby was up to bat; if he got the homerun then The Wolves would win. He hit the ball hard and was going for a homerun. The ball came flying back, it was to close to tell who the winner could be. At the last second, just as the Bobby was getting to the last base, his foot got caught on a rock and he fell not reaching his target. Some people moaned, but most cheered, everyone knew that it was an accident, even if the losers complained that it wasn't.

Though everyone packed up quickly after the snack that was eaten following the game, they were still late getting on the coaches, that wasn't helped by the traffic and the fact that the drivers were tired from all the 'healthy competition'. Scott half regretted making the decision to have a baseball tournament.

The coaches finally arrived back at the manor at twenty-five minutes past nine. Everyone rested on the coaches for a couple of minutes before finally coming out.

"Do you think that Ro will be angry with us for being late?" Jean asked her husband worriedly.

"Ro? Angry? That'll only happen when hell freezes over." Scott joked opening the front door. He turned on the light and was alarmed at what he saw; there was blood splattered on the wall to the right, smudges of blood on the wall and floor and many small puddles of the crimson liquid on the floor. Also, scorch marks lined a wall and the ground, expensive objects from some of the students' room was also there, and a man sitting on the marble flooring, his eyes closed, head tilted. Was he dead? Scott couldn't see if he was breathing.

Scott took a step inside but stopped as a hand squeezed his shoulder; a trembling voice spoke from behind him.

"Scott, the kids can't see this."

He thought for a moment then stepped back, shut the door and spoke to the students. Scott said that half of them would follow Jean to the fire escape on the left side of the building, while the other half followed Scott to the right side fire escape. The students were told to stay in their rooms until they were told to come down and that there bags would be up in 'due time'. When the couple came round to the front of the house they saw the other adults were already inside.

"Who could do this?" asked a woman with a strong southern accent, crouching on the floor by the blood.

"At least Ro got one of the bastards." Logan said furiously. He crouched beside the fallen man, clutched his neck and pulled him up.

"What are you doing, Logan?" asked a shocked Scott.

"Asshole's still alive, Scooter. He's gunna tell me everything he knows. You hear that, bub? You're gunna tell me everything." John didn't stir until Logan crashed him against the wall. The man lifted his hand and rubbed the back of his head.

"You better tell me where Storm is."

"What?" asked the dazed man.

Logan released the middle claw on his free hand and smile as he smelt the fear the man felt. The other X-Men had formed a circle around the man; all their faces were permeating rage. Then the clawed anti-hero stated in a slow, menacing tone, "Now bub, I'm gunna ask you one more time before I start slicing. Where is Storm?"

The man started crying out in pain from the wound Ororo had given him, but he oppressed it into a wince here and there. He looked at the mutants around him in disgust, then settled his eyes on his captor and grinned eccentrically. "Close to the little whore were you?" Logan was about to stab him, but stopped when he heard five very important words in a suddenly dying voice. "I'll tell you one thing…she gave me this," he said gesturing to his fatal injury. "and she's gunna pay _dearly_ for it." He breathed a deep breath then went limp. Logan hurriedly jabbed his unleashed claw into the man's liver, reserving gasps from everyone and a howl from John, then he ripped almost vertically up his chest until he was a centimetre above his now mangled heart.

"Whoa Logan! I get it your angry; I felt it, but…" Jean said almost fearfully.

"Yeah Wolverine wha-" Scott was interrupted by Logan squaring off to them shouting, "The asshole was about to die, by Ro's hand!" then he said softly. "She's got that oath, you know; not to kill anyone, never. There was no way that scumbag was gunna take that away from 'er." His hand was still wrapped around John's throat, Logan let go and left. Everyone except Anna watched him walk off; she stared at the man slowly slipping down the wall leaving a trail of blood, and an expanding pool on the floor. His eyes were open, a look of horror on his face, she shuddered slightly.

When the five friends had quickly recovered, Scot said, "We've got to get the-"

"I'm right here Scott, what's happened?" said Professor Xavier who had recently appeared.

"Professor!" exclaimed Jean.

"Yes," Charles said rolling into the hall and answering his own question. "You're right Hank; we need to go to Cerebro." Charles travelled to the room with five of his seven senior X-Men in toe.

_Logan._

_What you want Charles?_

_I might be able to find Ororo with Cerebro, you should come down._

_Might?_

_Ororo has a unique psyche, if often very difficult to located, but-_

_Fine. I'll be down in a sec._

Everyone was stunned, to say the least, at the radical change in the brain room. The control panel was completely smashed as well as the screen, the helmet Xavier to magnify him power was also ruined. There were fragments of metal, plastic and glass everywhere, wires were hanging out of the control panel and the invaders had massacred the walls and flooring of the room with, probably, metal baseball bats.

The only object that was still intact was a black laptop with two red racing stripes, between the two bands was a four digit number: _7158_. The laptop was sitting on the ruins of the control panel.

Logan walked into the room, quickly took in the damage and said inexplicably calm. "Jus' thinkin' out loud here Charles, but if these guys took Ro and smashed up this place, then I'm guessin' they left the laptop and there's probably something on there that'll help us get Ro back." Hank walked up to the laptop and opened it, the gang turned to the portable computer when a voice came from it.

"Well it certainly took you long enough." said smugly by a silhouette of a man. "I'm sure you know that I have taken your _mutant_ comrade. Now, you are probably wondering why I would want to do this, it simple: I want that piece of technology you acquired a few months ago, Xavier." All the people looked at their mentor confused; Charles just watched the screen pretending not to notice. "I know that look, you haven't told them have you Xavier, I wonder why. Any-"

"You can see us?" inquired Hank.

"And hear you McCoy. But, as I was saying, I want that technology and in return I'll give you back your, bitch." The man laughed before saying the last word, then said it in disgust.

Wolverine unleashed his claws then walked up to the screen and shouted. "Hey bub, don't you talk 'bout Storm that way."

"What are you going to do about it? As I've told you, I want it and I'm going to get it. It must be sealed inside a leather briefcase and dropped off in the bin on the corner of Powers and East 142nd, south of St. Mary's Park; it has to be there in three hours, nine minutes. I'll give you back your friend ten hours after the drop. Don't think of watching who picks up the package, you must not be within two miles."

"And if –"

"You don't? I'm glad you asked that question Howlett."

The image on the screen changed from the silhouette to a completely black screen. After half a minute there was a sound like gas being released from a canister, when it had stopped a bright white cylindrical ceiling light flickered on. A gasp escaped from both women as they saw their friend waking up. Though the camera was at a top corner of the cube shaped cell, all the people in the Cerebro saw that she had many cuts on her face, a broken nose with dried blood underneath, the split lip, she also had bruises on her face, neck and arms.

Through the camera they saw Ororo sit up and open her eyes, yawning slightly then one hand rubbed the side of her head, the other massaged her abdomen. Suddenly she stopped doing everything; moving, breathing, she was like a statue, then she started to tremble slightly, it gradually became more violent. Ororo quickly stood up, wincing as she did, and whispered 'no' then she said it again, but with increased anxiety, she repeated the word again and again. She was nearly crying and had desperation and fear in her voice, all the while hitting the wall.

"No, no! Let me out, _please_!"

Her friends could only watch in horror as she lost control, her phobia releasing all the power she could. Ororo quickly built up a visible electrical charge, it gathered around her body getting larger by each passing second, then she unleashed the full gold-white blast. They hid their eyes under the intensity and were surprised to see the picture come back, but when it did, it was of the wind rider leaning against the wall, breathing heavily with her eyes closed and tears running down her face, head swinging from side to side. A gentle snowy wind started to circle the inside of the cell.

There was a creak of metal against metal then another similar sounder but it was much louder. The walls of the cell unexpectedly started moving inwards. Ororo was understandably startled and jolted into the centre of the cubicle, she started firing off bolts of lightning all around her; it was futile, the wind and snowy picked up creating a pallid blanket on the floor. When the barriers were within a metre, Ororo began shrieking and again hitting her fists into the wall, watching her became a strained task. Just as it seemed as if they were going to crush her they stopped. She had been employing hurried breaths, as she shrieked and shouted, but she stopped breathing again, her cerulean eyes rolled back and she slouched on the wall then collapsed onto the space-limited floor. The wind immediately stopped, she was hip deep in snow, but the cold had no effect on her. Now that she was unconscious her harried breathing became a little more regular, she was sweating profusely and had rapid eye movement under her heavy eyelids.

_Chere mus' be havin' da wors' nigh'mare. Padnat, Remy'll come for ya, he promise. _Thought a disturbed Remy.

"Now, I'm sure you won't want your friend to endure that again. Do what I say and she won't have to. Well, would you look at that," he chuckled. "you've lost seven minutes. Hurry, hurry, hurry." And with that the laptop went blank and shut down.

"I'm gunna kill him." Logan returned to his usual tone, claws extending and retracting in time with his breathing.

"Calm down Logan, I know you're angry, we all are, but we can't go in all guns blazing. We just give him want he wants, and then get Ro back, 'k?

Logan didn't answer, but looked like he accepted it.

"OK. Professor what is this thing that you got couple months back?"

Charles reached under his chair and pressed a button, the result was a small compartment came out of the arm. In the small section was a pouch, out of the pouch came something that could have been a computer chip, except it was black instead of green and had silver veins running through it that replaced wires.

"It's a biological power enhancer. I was attempting to find a way to put it in Cerebro, which was why I went on the trip."

"Why didn't ya tell us?" Remy almost shouted the words.

"I don't mean to be rude, but it was none of your business or concern and the information, somehow, could have been leaked and this valuable piece of technology could have fallen into the wrong hands, and now it will."

"You don't trust us." Said Scott matter-of-factly.

"It's not that I don't trust _you_, it's that I don't trust anyone outside the institute, and anything could have happened to you and knowledge of this equipment could have got out into the public."

Scott was just about to start an argument with Charles when Anna intervened. "Look, we'd all love to question the Professor on this subjec', but we got bigga things to worry about like ge'in' Ro back. So why don't y'all stop ya bickerin' an' let us work outa plan."

They decided that the best thing to do was give the mystery man want he wanted through there were many protests. Jean was the person who made the drop-off at exactly one in the morning. None of them could sleep when they got back to the manor, so they did anything to keep themselves busy; Jean, Anna and Scott cleaned up the destruction in the hall and ferried the bags to the sleeping students. Hank, Logan and Remy helped Charles to put Cerebro back together as best they could.

After seven hours of cleaning, mending and headaches from tiredness, the team finally thought that they were getting closer to Ororo. Hank opened the laptop because the green light at the front had begun to flash.

"Hello there X-Men how are you –"

"Cut the pleasantries and tell us where Storm is." Spoke an angered Anna.

"Whoa there sugah." He said mimicking her accent. "Now you realise that it's only been seven hours since the drop, right?"

"And?" implored a heated Scott.

"And, I'm not going to give back your girl."

"What?!" shouted Logan and Remy, veins pulsing through there necks.

"Well I've decided that she could give the location of where we are or could tell you what we look like, but really the main reason is; she's a mutant." Everyone grit there teeth. "I hate mutants, so I'm gunna kill her, it's as simple as that." He took a cylindrical object out of his pocket; no one knew what it was until he twirled it. They saw that the object was in fact four circles the size of fingers connected together, he slipped the knuckleduster onto his hand then said spitefully. "If you want to pick up what remains of her, it will be on the Bronx side under the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Bye X-Men."

Before the screen could turn black Logan grabbed the base, almost crushing it, and threw it against the wall where it shattered the laptop into countless pieces. Then he ran out of Cerebro and into the hall, though Ororo's blood happen been wiped away, he could still smell it. Logan got the scent and walked out of the manor; following the trail. He was amazed he didn't think of it earlier. He was pursued by the rest of the team, they saw him walk out the manor sniffing, he abruptly stopped, but continued sniffing.

Logan stopped, thinking. _It's gone, Ro's scent, where is it? They must of taken her in a…_

Logan saw what he thought were tracks of a car, he crept over and his theory was confirmed, but it was van tracks.

"What you found Logan?" asked an enthusiastic Scott.

"Tracks Scooter. Looks like they put her in a van, if they didn't change vans then I can smell it out and we can follow. But we'll have to go in cars and it'll be slow." He grunted at the thought

"Fine, we'll get ready."

While the X-Men were moving out to rescue Ororo, the mystery man was walking over to her cell. He didn't like the hassle of guards or a massive group of people working on a small project, he preferred a four to six man squad to do what needed to be done. He always wore a black suit and tie, with a different colour shirt and belt everyday, that day he wore turquoise, but changed before leaving his temporary office. The man changed into green camouflage tracksuit bottoms, a black F.O.H vest and a balaclava that only covered the lower half of his head and his neck. The man only put on the knuckleduster to scare his opposition, in fact he wore black and red weight-lifting gloves, he had jet black hair and a very muscular body.

Mystery man walked into the room where Ororo was trapped in the box. Around it were the four F.O.H agents who had captured her; Sam at the front, all were facing the door.

"Sir." shouted all four, in unison, saluting also. Their feet were together, they were standing up straight and stiff, lastly they were stone-faced and had a look of complete obedience.

"At ease, soldiers." The man ordered.

There was the simultaneous thud of the soldiers' feet stepping into that position: their feet were slightly wider than hip width apart and their hands were behind there back, they still had obdurate expressions.

"Status report."

Sam said this, his voice dripping with disgust. "She has woken up several times since the initial, but MIC has held strong Sir."

"Good. Soldiers, it is time for penultimate stage of plan 'B'."

"Yes Sir."

"Wait outside, I will carry it out."

Before they could say 'Yes Sir' again, Sam asked for permission to speak freely, it was granted.

"Sir, _she_ killed my brother, may I carry out the killing blow. Sir?"

After a few seconds of thought, he said. "You may soldier, but I will deal with her first."

"Yes Sir." With that the squad marched out.

Sir walked over to the control computer, pressed some buttons and clicked the mouse a couple of times. There was a screeching sound over at the cell, inside the wall were receding. After another round of clicks and button pressing, half the roof snapped open, crashing in the wall and waking a distressed Ororo.

He ran and jumped at the container, stretching his arms to grab onto the ledge of the roof. He hauled himself up onto the other half and saw his victim slowly standing; still her arm wrapped her stomach. In a flash Sir had jumped in the cell with his hand attached to the ledge, it kept him slightly above the floor, his other hand was wrapped around Ororo's throat. She didn't struggle as he lifted them both; he threw her over the top of the cube so that she would land on the floor of the room. He was right behind her and landed just a moment after she cracked into the floor. The collision almost broke her arm but didn't scream out in pain, she was trying to conserve her energy.

"Hey, I didn't give you permission to lie down?" He spat dragging her up into the sitting position. He was just about to strike when Ororo grasped the hand holding her and sent an electrical charge, striking his brain, it wouldn't kill him but it would probably give him permanent brain damage. The man who was going to kill her moments ago was now unconscious. Ororo struggled to push her attacker off; but when she did, she just lay there trying to breathe as deeply as possible. It hurt every time she took a breath. The wind rider lay on her back next to the man she almost killed for five minute and could have gone to sleep if somebody hadn't shouted.

"Sir?"

_Sam_! She thought alarmed, _I had forgotten about them. _

Ororo fought to stand, but did and began to gather lightning. The X-Man got ready to run, rocking back and forth. Then with a burst of energy, she sprinted forward, she started to shoot the exiting panel with a small blast, but the doors opened and she had to redirect the current to the advancer.

Sam realized the attack a second to late and was hit in the shoulder with the Ororo's lightning. When the other three saw their comrade shot, they ran into the room shooting, but were blasted onto the corridor wall before they got a shot near her. Ororo was exhausted, almost all of her energy and wouldn't be able to call on the Goddess for help again.

She ran and ran, for what felt like hours, until she saw sunlight. Although it was a window, she pried it open and crawled through cringing every time the hard material stroked her stomach; it was a street level window. Ororo released her foot from the window and stood in triumph. She took one step forward and felt a crushing feeling on her ankle; she turned her head and saw an arm stretched out the hole she had scrabbled through. The hand increased the pressure ten-fold and Ororo shrieked out just a moment before she was pulled to the ground again. She heard a dreadful crack, one of her ribs must have only been fractured, but instantly broke on contact, she also felt the broken ribs move slightly, making her release painful cries. She was dragged back. The woman scratched and grabbed at nothing, she kicked and kicked until she felt her free foot connected with something, the hand released and she scrambled to her feet. She struggled to keep her sniffles contained as she hobbled to the only other building for miles.

She was half way to the copper building when she heard a scratching sound from behind her. The man who had grabbed her ankle had his torso out of the window and his legs were pushing through, she started to run even though the pain in her torso and ankle was excruciating. She turned the handle of the heavy metal door and pushed it in, she turned around to see the man sprinting towards her; he was already half way there. She closed the door slightly then ran up a flight of stair just in front of her. The man started running up when she got on the second flight, she finally got to the second level and turned around to see where the man saw, she was backhanded and went flying, smashing into the wall.

Ororo quickly recovered and ran over to the other stairs, but got tripped up by a leg moving into her path. She was on her stomach but turned onto her back.

"You think you're jus' so…" She recognized his voice: it was Sam.

He moved over her to strike, but she swept her leg under his and he fell onto his back. Ororo clambered up and shifted into a fighting stance. Her breath was harried and everything hurt, but she would persevere. He walked towards her again and went in for another punch, but she grabbed it and used the base of her palm to break his nose. Sam stumbled back, grasping his nose; he took him hand away to reveal his horribly broken nose and blood raining from it. He wiped it away, though it was useless, then laughed a little.

He lunged at her, this time he got the upper hand, kneeing her in the stomach; she coughed up blood and squealed in pain, hold both arms protectively around the damaged area, Sam smirked again and moved her head down to his kneeing; where he kneeing her in the face: breaking her nose in a different place. Sam thought it was almost amazing, for a mutant, what she did next. Ororo pushed out from him, then immediately attacked him, punching him over and over again. She tried to get in a final blow with her right arm; the one she landed on when the mystery man threw her over the cell. He seized her wrist, twisted it slightly and smashed it into a railing, breaking it instantly, Ororo screamed out, tears running down her face.

Sam threw himself onto of the bawling, collapsing woman and wrapped his hand around her throat, compressing it. "Die!" he shouted, he said it continuously, never stopping.

Ororo resisted with all her strength, she scraped his face and tried to kick him, but his legs were crushing hers. She gulped at air that would never reach her lungs; Ororo's lungs were burning, bursting for oxygen. After a minute of fighting her body gave up; she felt her limbs collapse and her vision become blurry, then the edges of her vision turned black. The blackness gradually consumed her eyes, then an unbelievably frightened Ororo lost all her senses, she only knew that she was alive, but the ominous cloak started to stretch across her mind. The pain of losing herself was almost as excruciating as her multitude of physical injuries.

At six minutes past nine Ororo Munroe, Mistress of the Element, leader of the X-Men, died.

Scott drove the front car, a black Hummer with tinted windows; with Logan in the passenger seat, his window down, Anna in the back. Hank drove the second car, it was the same type. They had been driving for just under an hour, though they were all tired, they all had a steely determination to rescue their friend.

"How much longer Lo-"

"How am I s'pose to know, I'm just followin', I can't give ya a fricking ETA."

After about half a minute of silence, Scott shouted. "Hey what's that?" he had seen two buildings of the same size, except one was black and the other was copper red. Scott speeded toward them: 178mph. They skidded on the sandy gravel and jumped out of the cars. Scott's group jogged towards the black building and Hank's jogged to the copper one.

Suddenly a heart-wrenching scream rang out from the copper structure, Logan immediately sprinted in the direction of the sound, but the others didn't follow until Scott gave the order. It took him a minute to get there, but when he finally did his anger erupted.

Logan ran up behind the boy who was strangling his unconscious partner. He crushed the boy's shoulder and pulled him into a kneeling pose, he didn't even have time to scream, it was so shocking. Logan punched the attacker in the middle of his back, then plunged his unbreakable talons into him until they protruded out of his chest. The boy spluttered out blood, Logan twisted his claws slightly, he heard a yelp from the teenager, then he hurled him across the room until he collided into the wall. Logan breathing was unnaturally heavy, he slowly retracted his bloody claws, all the time staring at the dying attacker.

He turned around and knelt next to Ororo, expression changing instantly to one of concern, the others had come in only seconds ago, but Jean was already performing CPR.

_Breathe, breathe. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. _Jean thought as she did the actions. _Breathe, breathe. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Come on 'Ro, fight this, come on, come on! Breathe, breathe. One, two, three…_

A woman stirred from a restless sleep, her eyelids leisurely unlocked revealing ice blue eyes. Her newly opened eyes saw a glaring white light and they were quickly shut. She pushed herself up, sitting, but rapidly stopped and fell back, clutching her arm. It didn't feel real, it felt like cotton. Again the woman opened her eyes, this time looking at her right arm; on it was a soft creamy-brown wrap, from the bottom of her fingers to just above her elbow. She pain in her arm as well as mid-riff, the woman also felt a discomfort in her nose. She sat up again but this time only using her left arm. Looking around the woman recognized the layout, though it didn't realize want the room was called for a while.

She gently took the IV from her arm and dabbed the cut with a tissue from the table next to here, then she swung her legs over the bed and stepped onto the floor, immediately she collapse, her legs were stiff; they hadn't been used for quite some time. She gathered herself back onto the bed then tried to walk again, the next time it was more successful. Walking round the bed, the penny dropped, it was the infirmary. The woman opened a drawer next to the bed she was just in; inside were several sets of clothes. She pulled out light blue long skirt and a white sleeveless blouse with a wide string that she would tied behind her back. She changed her clothes and walked to the long mirror, something was wrong, missing, the woman picked up a black band from the table next to her, she slipped it onto her neck, under her hair, and lifted the front until it covered the front just concealed her baby hair. The woman looked back in the mirror, after pulling her ears from under the band, she smile; that was the Ororo she remembered.

Ororo walked out of the infirmary, still unsteady on her feet. She walked through the corridors wondering were everybody was.

_They must be in lessons._ She thought. She walked towards the kitchen after feeling absolutely famished. Coming out of the kitchen was Logan, as soon as he saw her, a smile spread across his face, he strolled over to her. They both felt that it might be uncomfortable talking each other after the fight they had, but Logan new that that fight had separated them for too long and he could bear not to talk to her again.

Ororo was just about to say something, but Logan softly wrapped her in his arms, he was so lucky to have her back he didn't want to let go. Ororo returned the favour and buried her face in his cotton covered chest. Logan was going to break the silence, but stopped himself when he felt warm liquid spreading on his shirt, over his chest; he kissed her snowy hair and hugged her tighter.

A tear rolled down Logan's cheek and he thought, _Being without you for the past two months have been like hell on earth, Ro. I never want to be apart from you again, never. _


End file.
